All Mod cons: Manchester United ready to battle for Spurs ace Luka Modric

Sir Alex Ferguson is set to engage in a familiar dance with the Tottenham chairman Daniel Levy.

Sir Alex Ferguson is set to engage in a familiar dance with the Tottenham chairman Daniel Levy.

The two men have been here before but the end result is sure to be a £25m-plus bid to lure Luka Modric, who plays for Croatia against Ireland in Euro 2012 group C at Poznan on Sunday, to Old Trafford.

Gazing across the ballroom that is the summer transfer window, midfield maestro Modric is the latest to find himself caught in the middle.

Ferguson’s incredulous response to Spurs’ £32m valuation will have been expected in North London.

And if recent history is anything to go by, United will have to come close to that asking price if they are to land their top target.

Levy has proved himself a fierce negotiator, as well as pragmatist.

Pragmatic because he has accepted in the past that Spurs struggle to keep hold of their major stars when the biggest clubs come calling.

But that hasn’t stopped him from driving up the price to ensure his club isn’t run roughshod over when it comes to sitting down around the negotiating table.

United experienced that when identifying Michael Carrick as the man to fill Roy Keane’s boots in the centre of their midfield in 2006.

It was generally assumed that Tottenham would be helpless to stand in his way of a move up north – but it took weeks of wrangling before United came up with a sum big enough to land him.

A fee of £18.6m was deemed a high price for a player who wasn’t yet an England regular. But Ferguson knew his worth – and so did Tottenham.

Things were much less cordial when United set their sights on Dimitar Berbatov two years later.

Levy accused United of arrogance during their pursuit of the Bulgarian international.

In the end the deal still went through, but not without United stumping up a club record £30.75m deadline day sum for the striker.

Now it is Modric who is the object of Ferguson’s interest – and once again Levy stands in the way.

He showed his resolve last year when Chelsea tried so hard to take the player to Stamford Bridge – with Roman Abramovich believed to be prepared to pay £40m to land him.

A year on and Tottenham’s failure to qualify for the Champions League for a second season in succession could test that resolve.

The player himself is desperate to play in European club football’s biggest competition – while without the revenues of playing in the Champions League, Spurs may have to sell to provide Harry Redknapp with the funds to build.

What Modric represents for Ferguson is a player who can succeed Paul Scholes.

A player who can dictate tempo in the centre of midfield with his superb range of long and short passing – and with the vision to cut open defences in an instant.

With Shinji Kagawa already secured there is evidence of Ferguson looking for more guile in his midfield.

While the Japanese international is expected to play further up the pitch, Modric can orchestrate from deeper.

Having scored just five goals for Tottenham last season, he cannot compare to Scholes’ strike-rate at his peak – but his intelligence and movement are up there with the former England international.

It was in the absence of a player like Modric that Scholes was required to make a retirement U-turn.

The 37-year-old has signed a one-year extension, but Ferguson knows he needs to find his successor before he retires for good.

Modric looks an ideal candidate to fill that role and Ferguson will know that.

Recently Published

Sir Alex Ferguson is under pressure to splash the cash on Tottenham’s man in demand Luka Modric, with Reds’ fans desperate to avoid a repeat of last summer’s tortuous transfer saga over Wesley Sneijder.

Our newspapers include the flagship Manchester Evening News - Britain's largest circulating
regional daily with up to 130,485 copies - as well as 20 local weekly titles across Greater
Manchester, Cheshire and Lancashire.

Free morning newspaper, The Metro, published every weekday, is also part of our portfolio,
delivering more than 200,000 readers in Greater Manchester.

Greater Manchester Business Week is the region’s number one provider of business news andfeatures, targeting a bespoke business audience with 12,687 copies every Thursday.

Every month, M.E.N. Media’s print products reach 2.2 million adults, spanning from Accrington
in the north to Macclesfield in the south.